Randall Smith

From WCTV:

The U.S. Navy says a sailor who was shot in the attack on a military facility in Chattanooga has died, raising the death toll to five people.

The death occurred two days after a gunman killed four Marines during a shooting rampage on two military facilities.

...The Navy statement did not give the sailor's name. He was identified by family as Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, a reservist serving on active duty in Chattanooga.

Another family is grieving today because of Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez and radical Islam's war against Americans.

My prayers are with Smith's loved ones.

From KTLA:

Looking for a motive

Authorities are trying to figure out why Abdulazeez — an accomplished student, well-liked peer, mixed martial arts fighter and devout Muslim — went on the killing spree.

U.S. Attorney Bill Killian said the shootings are being investigated as an “act of domestic terrorism,” but he noted the incident has not yet been classified as terrorism.

Reinhold said there is nothing to connect the attacker to ISIS or other international terror groups. Abdulazeez was not on any U.S. databases of suspected terrorists.

He was not known to have been in trouble with the law except for a DUI arrest in April. He apparently was not active on social media — one of the common ways police investigate terrorism.

His family

The father of Abdulazeez was investigated — and cleared, twice — as part of an FBI probe into terrorism financing, law enforcement officials said.

Officials stressed that Abdulazeez’s father was one of many people investigated for their funding of overseas charities, especially after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Most of them were never charged with a crime.

The president of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga told WDEF that Abdulazeez’s father called him after the shooting.

“He was in the dark on what his son has done, he’s very devastated,” Bassam Issa said. The father “actually apologized for what his son did to the community at large and to the Muslim community and I told him we all feel distraught, we all feel shocked.”

‘Something happened over there’

While Abdulazeez was a devout Muslim, he didn’t appear to be radical, according to some who knew him. He was born in Kuwait but became a naturalized American citizen.

Jordanian sources said Abdulazeez had been in Jordan as recently as 2014 visiting an uncle. He had also visited Kuwait and Jordan in 2010, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said.

A longtime friend said Abdulazeez changed after spending time in the Middle East and “distanced himself” for the first few months after returning to Tennessee.

“Something happened over there,” Abdulrazzak Brizada told CNN, saying, “he never became close to me like he was before he went overseas … I’m sure he had something that happened to him overseas.”

Really?

We're looking for a motive?

Are those in charge of looking for a motive blind? Are they stupid?

Good grief.

If Abdulazeez "didn't appear to be radical," then it might be time to change the criteria for identifying a radical.



God be with the family and friends of those gunned down by terrorist Abdulazeez.